Letter from BABTAG to Cllr Dave Houseman and His reply

Dear David Houseman
With the County Council elections on May 2nd in mind, the residents of Barkby, Barkby Thorpe, Thurmaston and Syston would be interested in your response to the following questions:-
1. Do you support or oppose the building of 4,500 houses on productive farmland north of Hamilton and East of Thurmaston now that the
obligation to build in the P.U.A.(the Leicester northern fringe) has been removed by the revocation of the East Midlands Regional Plan?
2. Do you support or oppose the road and transport measures that have been proposed to mitigate the travel movement of more than 12,000 new residents of the SUE and specifically a new link road from the A607 through the playing fields of Roundhill School to Barkby Thorpe lane?
Your position on these two questions will be published on the BABTAG website and on the BABTAG Facebook page.
Thanking you in advance for an urgent reply Regards George Braybrook
Committee member of BABTAG (Barkby and Barkby Thorpe Parishes Action Group)George
Many thanks for your email.
As you will know Charnwood Borough Council is the Local Planning Authority and Leicestershire County Council is a consultee. The development site that you refer to is not within the Leicestershire Syston Fosse Division that I represent, however, it would certainly affect Syston.
It’s considered that there should be an end to big housing developments being imposed on residents without the necessary infrastructure improvements. It appears that no particularly provision for the elderly has yet been included in these plans but we have a rising elderly population and Extra Care Housing should be an essential part of any large development.
As yet I have not seen any evidence to substantiate the claim that a new settlement, over 4 times larger than the village of East Goscote consisting of 4,500 dwellings, is needed in and around Thurmaston.
If there is a need for such a large number of houses on this side of the borough it would seem to be more sensible to locate them adjacent to existing major dual carriageway highways not where they are surrounded by exceedingly small country roads.
The additional road traffic using the proposed road link from the site through the grounds of Roundhill Academy to Melton Road (the A607) could not only increase air pollution but also increase the dangers to students walking to and from the Academy; so it will be necessary to see how the developers intend to mitigate these dangers.
I live not far away and have observed that the Thurmaston Asda Roundabout is already a bottleneck at times because it now has to handle the new Costco Wholesale store traffic. I look forward to seeing the detailed plans as it’s difficult to see, even after any reconfiguration, how this traffic island would be able to cope with any substantial increase in traffic movements.
Kind regards.Dave
Adults and Communities Cabinet Member
Dave Houseman, County Councillor for Syston Fosse Division which includes Syston west, Ratcliffe on the Wreake, East Goscote, Cossington and Thrussington
Website: www.leics.gov.uk/houseman
Email: [email protected]